Living Stones

His chosen people

The New King James Version Chapter 2

2 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

The Chosen Stone and His Chosen People

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

“Behold, I lay in Zion

A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,

And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,

“The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling

And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Living Before the World

11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

The chief cornerstone - everything has a beginning, the only thing that has no beginning or end is the Creator, God, the LORD, the Self-Existent One, the I am, Yahweh. He began it all yet, he has no beginning or end. We find in his interactions with his creation though, that there are beginnings. Whether it be with the angels/sons of God in Job.

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements?

Surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

6 To what were its foundations fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

7 When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Job 38:4–7.

Interesting that we see that word cornerstone in this passage. We find, that a cornerstone then was the stone that all other stones for the rest of the building needed to conform to in order to create the building. Even without stone, there is a corner where the builder will begin, so that he can build the rest of the house.

Living Stones - Peter has a key word in here for us as believers, that word is “desire”. The word desire is not a word that denotes maybe you might want something, it denotes, I must have it, I have to have it. There are good desires and bad desires in life yet, this is a good desire, it is I would say one of the chief desires that we should cultivate in our lives. If we desire the pure things of Christ, then we begin a process where we model ourselves after him, we become living stones. Modeled after him, becoming that “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”. We get excited for the chosen, royal, special part but, do we get equally excited for the “proclaim” part? One version puts it like this, “proclaim the virtues” another one puts it like this, “proclaim the excellencies”. Either way, we are to tell others about Him, how great He is. TO be a living stone is to model yourself after the chief cornerstone and Jesus being the chief cornerstone, and throughout the New Testament, we find that whenever Jesus did something, people told other people about it, they proclaimed it, the talked about, they cried about it, they marvelled about it but, either way we find that someone else heard about it. The living stones, submit their lives to the chief cornerstone and in that process they are a testimony and they testify and all point to the chief cornerstone.

Not always going to be easy though - we find that there are always naysayers, people who work against the his kingdom and try to make His people fear and stop the work. Nehemiah chapter 2 and part of 3 tells us something about that:

11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode. 13 And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire. 14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. 15 So I went up in the night by the valley, and viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.

17 Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work.

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?”

20 So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”

Rebuilding the Wall

3 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They built as far as the Tower of the Hundred, and consecrated it, then as far as the Tower of Hananel.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ne 2:11–3:1.

There will always be Sanballats, Tobiahs and Geshems to mock the work, stall the work, try to stop up the work of God but, God will not be stopped.

3. The stone that the builders rejected:

The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ps 118:22.

The New King James Version Chapter 6

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.